FLINT, MI -- City Councilman Wantwaz Davis is asking the Michigan attorney general to investigate conditions at the Genesee County animal shelter, which Davis says are appalling.

"I was taken aback by the substandard conditions the animals were placed under," Davis wrote in a letter to state. "The stenches in the cages were deplorable; the cages and animals were not properly cleaned. There was neither adequate water nor food in their trays; there was food scattered on the floor and huge amount of feces in the cages."

Animal advocates have long pushed for improved conditions at the county-owned shelter on Pasadena Avenue, and have ratcheted up their efforts in recent weeks.

The county Board of Commissioners has voted to bring back a volunteer program that had been temporarily suspended and to ask voters for a 0.2-mill tax property tax to pay for shelter improvements.

On Wednesday, Aug. 13, the commissioners voted to hire a consultant to assess practices and management at the shelter.

Davis said he decided to visit the shelter to check on conditions first-hand because of recent protests, concluding, "they do not have adequate staffing nor volunteers, to attend the needs of the helpless animals."

"I am requesting for someone in your office to conduct a thorough investigation on the aforementioned animal shelter, and for this official complaint to be perceived as a serious matter, wherefore, the animals would be afforded the rights and dignity of any other species," the letter says.